Why we have to be ecumenical

I'm a Baptist at a Catholic University. I'm studying at a Catholic University because my professors, mentors, and pastors all believed that it was important for Baptists to learn and talk with other church groups. This doesn't mean we have to convert or give up our convictions.

Being Baptist at a Catholic University hasn't made me want to be Catholic. It's actually made me want to be more Baptist. By "more Baptist" I mean that I'm learning things that are distinct about Baptists in a way that I might not have without Catholics as conversation partners. It's one thing to sit in a Baptist Seminary and talk about how Baptists are "distinctive" in a seminar full of only Baptist students and teachers. This way of talking about Baptist distinctiveness bothers me (and friends of mine) because it usually ends up defining who Baptists are by caricaturing other groups. It's another thing to learn how distinctive we are by going out to other groups, talk with ministers, Priests, and laypeople, and find out what's distinctive in a more charitable way.

I don't think we have to be ecumenical because all churches should be one in a "visible communion." I know folks who would probably disagree with me on this. I think we have to be ecumenical because this is how we get to know ourselves. I think we have to be ecumenical because this is a way we can come to know the Gospel we preach in a deeper way.

One reason I've taken an interest in Barth on this "ecumenical" blog is because I have a hunch that Free Church theologians have to get to catholicity through Barth. Steve Harmon, one of my former Professors, points to this with an important chapter in his book Towards Baptist Catholicity that reads the early volumes of Barth's Dogmatics as a paradigm for Baptist "ressourcement." I think Barth is important for Free Church and Baptist theologians because he can do theology with a heavy emphasis on scripture, preaching, and the local church, and then combine this with a "dialectical catholicity" that searches for the faithful proclamation of the Word of God in all periods and church communities, even among "liberal Protestants"! Barth gives theoretical backing to the kind of practical engagement that I think is important here. Students, scholars and ministers should engage the ecumenical task in various ways not only for the goal of institutional unity, but also for the goal of learning to be better preachers and teachers of the Word of God.